It’s always sunny in California, as the legend goes. That saying may take on a new flavor with the launch of Sunny Vodka, a sprightly new spirit from social media influencers turned entrepreneurs Zack Bia and Anastasia “Stas” Karanikolaou.

Bia, a nightlife fixture and indie record label owner who is (casual, NBD) pals with Drake, NBA star Kyle Kuzma and “Euphoria” standout Dominic Fike, has a cool half-million (and growing) Instagram followers. Karanikolaou has a coveted off-the-runway outfit and is a close friend to Kylie Jenner. She is known to her nearly 11 million Instagram followers as “Stassiebaby” or merely “Stas.”

Sunny Vodka is a small batch, American-made, corn-based spirit made by two West Coast buddies. It’s just in time to host the promised post lockdown summer parties. The venture represents an emerging trend in business: social media stars flexing their global visibility to expand into self-owned brands, rather than merely promoting other people’s products.

“[The opportunity] fell into our laps,” Karanikolaou says. “This makes so much sense for us. It’s our passion to host get-togethers, throw parties and organize dinners. To be able to have our own line of vodka at events is just a dream.”

Bia, an experienced DJ, party host and music producer, echos this sentiment. “Music and spirits, they both meet right in the middle of nightlife and events,” he says. “There’s crossover appeal.” His expertise in producing music and nightlife events is seen as a natural evolution to promoting what he and his partners hope will be the next big thing in spirits, especially for younger consumers itching for return-to-normalcy celebrations.

To be sure, launching a vodka brand, when the category has, for several years, been America’s top selling spirit by volume, makes a certain amount of business sense, current events notwithstanding. Vodka sales saw an increase of 4.9 percent in 2021. They went from $341m to $7.3billion in revenue according to the latest data from The Distilled Spirits Council of America. Last year, more than 78 million 9-liter vodka cases were sold in America. This was an increase of 1.6% over the previous year. Ready-to-drink cocktails (36 million 9-liter bottles sold) and American whisky (29.7 millions 9-liter case sold) came in second and third.

“The growth in vodka is still there, albeit slower than other categories,” James Morrissey, founder of Global Brand Equities, says. Global Brand Equities partnered with Post Malone to produce his highly successful rose Maison No. Sunny Vodka also has 9 as a partner. “There’s been very little innovation [in vodka]Recent years have seen a significant increase in this category. This category is still relatively young. Brands have been slow to pivot and change to the way that …read more

Source:: Social Media Explorer

Author: Aaron